March 5, 2015
John 21:15-17
When they finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon
son of John, do you love me more than these?” Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
Jesus
asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I
love you.” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.”
Jesus
asked a third time, “Simon son of John,
do you love me?” Peter was sad
that Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” He replied, “Lord, you
know everything; you know I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
Monday and Tuesday we looked at the
first two General Rules – Avoid evil and Do good. These first two rules affect our relationship with
others. Good people of any faith
(or no faith) can follow these first two rules. Today we look at the third rule – the one that sets us apart
as the people of God.
John Wesley’s expression of this Rule was
“By attending upon all the ordinances of God” – also called spiritual practices
or the means of grace, such as:
The
public worship of God,
The
ministry of the Word (read or expounded)
The
Supper of the Lord (Holy
Communion)
Family
and private prayer
Bible
study
Fasting/abstinence
Holy
conferencing
Bishop Reuben Job expresses this rule as
Stay in love with God. He encourages us to consistently
practice these spiritual disciplines so that they may form and transform us
more and more into the persons God created us to be. Although each of us will “stay in love with God” in different
ways, there are some common essentials: gathering with other Christians to
worship, a daily prayer time, reading and studying the Bible, and sharing Holy
Communion.
Jesus certainly gave us the example of
staying in love with God by the accounts we have in scripture of his
withdrawing from the crowds, even from his faithful followers, to spend time
alone with God in prayer. He was
found in the temple studying the scriptures as a young boy; and he resisted
temptation in the desert by quoting scripture.
We also learn from the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of John
that one of the ways that we stay in love with God is by getting beyond our
personal relationship with God, and even beyond our worship and study with
other Christians, to “feed lambs” and “take care of sheep” – to provide for the
needs of others. We show that we
love God by sharing his love and grace with all God’s children.
As we continue to structure our lives
around these practices of God, we will be transformed – and when we are
transformed, we will transform the church – and as we transform the church, we
will transform the world.
Avoid
evil. Do all the good you
can. And stay in love with God.
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